IMAX Theater at State Museum to get new seats in June

A capacity crowd for the premiere of "Livin' Like Hendrix," a documentary about Hendrix Ebert, 8, who struggles with chronic pulmonary disease, at the IMAX at Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015.(Photo: Robert Scheer/IndyStar)Buy Photo

The IMAX Theater at Indiana State Museum will briefly shut down June 19-21 as it replaces its seats, which date back to the theater's 1996 construction, with newer, wider models.

According to a release on the IMAX website, seat width will expand to 25 inches from its current 21 inches. For comparison's sake, USA TODAY research from 2014 showed seats in economy sections of airlines ranged in width from 17 to 18½ inches. While the new seats buck the recent trend in movie theater seating for recliners, they will have enough "give" to let you lean back, almost a necessity for the six-story screen.

The final seat count is still being determined, but theater manager Craig Mince estimates the auditorium will end up losing approximately 30 seats due to the wider profile of the replacements.

If you're concerned this closure will mess up your moviegoing plans, it shouldn't be much of an obstacle. The closure is a Monday through Wednesday, so even if the project spills over to an extra day, the theater will still be operational for the June 23 opening of "Transformers: The Last Knight." (It could miss out, however, on the lucrative Thursday-night preview showings.)

This will be the second major renovation project for the IMAX Theater Downtown. It shut down for approximately two weeks in 2016 to replace its screen and install a new digital project and sound system.